In this file photo taken on Feb 9, 2022, boards announcing a coronavirus COVID-19 test center (top) and the 72nd Berlin film festival (bottom) are pictured in front of the Berlinale Palace in Berlin. (JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP)
BRUSSELS / DUBLIN / OTTAWA / BERLIN – Germany will lift most restrictions to contain the coronavirus despite infections hitting a record in the country on Thursday.
As of March 20, requirements to wear a mask will be dropped in indoor places like schools and at supermarkets but will remain mandatory in medical clinics and care homes
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after talks with leaders of Germany's 16 states that a record of almost 300,000 infections in one day was not good news, but the easing of restrictions was justified given intensive care units were not overwhelmed.
As of March 20, requirements to wear a mask will be dropped in indoor places like schools and at supermarkets but will remain mandatory in medical clinics and care homes.
Germany's 16 states will have the power to impose restrictions if they identify hotspots where both infections and hospitalisations peak.
The German parliament has been debating a vaccine mandate but it could take weeks before any vote on the divisive measure.
A worker takes information from a driver during a COVID-19 vaccine drive through clinic at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario, Canada on Dec 18, 2021. (LARS HAGBERG / THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP)
Canada
Canada on Thursday approved the use of the Moderna Spikevax (50 mcg) COVID-19 vaccine in children 6 to 11 years of age.
Health Canada said in a statement that this is the second COVID-19 vaccine authorized in Canada for use in this younger age group. Previously Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty vaccine was approved for children 5 to 11 years old.
Health Canada said the vaccine was initially authorized for use in people 18 years of age and older on Dec 23, 2020, and subsequently authorized for children 12 to 17 years of age on Aug. 27, 2021.
Health Canada has authorized a primary two-dose regimen of 50 micrograms per dose to be administered four weeks apart. This is half of the 100 micrograms primary two-dose regimen authorized for people 12 years of age and older.
Clinical trial showed that the immune response in children 6 to 11 years of age was comparable to the immune response in people 18 to 25 years of age, supporting the vaccine efficacy in this younger age group. No serious adverse events were observed during the trial, Health Canada said.
Currently Health Canada has approved two COVID-19 vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, for youth (12 to 17 years old) and six for adults (aged 18 and over), including AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Novavax and Medicago.
The plant-based Medicago is the first made-in-Canada vaccine, however according to a guidance document dated March 2, 2022 on the WHO website, it is listed as "not accepted" which means it could only be used in Canada.
Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic arrives for an emergency European Union summit at The European Council Building in Brussels on Feb 24, 2022, on the situation in Ukraine after Russia launched an invasion.
(JOHN THYS / POOL / AFP)
Croatia
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic of Croatia announced on Thursday the relaxation of COVID-19 measures since Friday, citing the country's decreasing case and positivity rates.
He said that 70.6 percent of the country's adult population has already been vaccinated with at least one dose.
From Friday, the attendance limit for people without COVID-19 certificates at indoor events will be raised, and for those holding COVID-19 certificates, there will be no capacity restrictions, Plenkovic said.
The mandatory closing time of catering outlets will be extended by two hours, from 12 pm to 2 am, and schoolchildren will no longer have to self-test once a week.
The measures currently in force related to entertainment venues, sports events, religious services and tourism will also be eased, Plenkovic said.
On March 1, the government abolished the COVID-19 certificate requirement for those entering government buildings or public institutions.
This file photo taken on June 11, 2021 shows the entrance of the European Medicines Agency headquarters in Amsterdam. (FRANCOIS WALSCHAERTS / AFP)
EU
Cases of Omicron BA2, a COVID-19 subvariant, are rising across the European Union, the European Medicines Agency said on Thursday.
What matters the most, he said, is how this increase in cases will stress the healthcare systems."While many EU countries are lifting restrictions, we notice that the infection rates are increasing again in some member states, partly because of the circulation of Omicron BA2, which seems to be more transmissible than other variants," Marco Cavalieri, head of the EMA's strategy on biological health threats and vaccines, told journalists here.
The EMA called non-vaccinated citizens to get jabbed as soon as possible, emphasizing that there are now five COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the EU using different technologies.
"There is currently no evidence that immune response after vaccination is significantly different with Omicron BA2. Vaccines continue to offer high protection against hospitalization and death," he said.
The vaccines that have received conditional marketing authorization from the EMA are those produced by Pfizer/BioNtech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen and Novavax.
Ireland's Prime Minister Micheal Martin speaks to press as he arrives for an emergency European Union summit at The European Council Building in Brussels on Feb 24, 2022 on the situation in Ukraine after Russia launched an invasion. (JOHN THYS / POOL / AFP)
Ireland
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin has tested positive for COVID-19 while on a visit to the United States, his office said in a news release on Thursday.
In a statement, President Michael D Higgins sent his good wishes to Martin.
"I was so very sorry to learn of this news breaking while the Taoiseach (prime minister in Irish) was busy representing Ireland in the United States leading up to our National Day," he wrote.
"I wish the Taoiseach a speedy recovery and also wish him further success with the continuation of his program in Washington."
Martin is currently in the United States on the occasion of St Patrick's Day, a national holiday in Ireland that falls on March 17 every year.
Martin tested positive on the eve of his scheduled meeting with US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House, Irish national radio and television broadcaster RTE reported.
The meeting eventually took place by video.
Martin is self-isolating and is feeling well, RTE said.
Italy's Prime Minister, Mario Draghi looks on as he speaks about a planned lifting of the country's COVID-19 state of emergency and rules imposed during the pandemic on March 17, 2022 during a press conference following a cabinet meeting at Palazzo Chigi in Rome.
(FILIPPO MONTEFORTE / AFP)
Italy
A board of experts advising the Italian government on the COVID-19 crisis will be disbanded when the national state of emergency ends on March 31, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Thursday.
Draghi told reporters that the government was going to gradually unwind restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus, but warned they could be re-introduced if the situation worsened again.
Empty vials of the COVID-19 vaccines against the novel coronavirus of several producers (from left to right) Comirnaty by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen by Johnson & Johnson are seen on a table in a vaccination center in Sonthofen, southern Germany, on Nov 30, 2021, amid the coronavirus pandemic. (CHRISTOF STACHE / AFP)
Moderna
Moderna Inc on late Thursday sought emergency use authorization from US health regulators for a second COVID-19 booster shot, as a surge in cases in some parts of the world fuels fears of another wave of the pandemic.
The US biotechnology company said its request covered all adults over the age of 18 so that the appropriate use of an additional booster dose of its vaccine, including for those at higher risk of COVID-19 due to age or comorbidities, could be determined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and health care providers.
In this file photo taken on Dec 2, 2020, the logo of US multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer is pictured at a factory in Puurs. (KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP)
Pfizer
Thirty five generic drugmakers around the world will make cheap versions of Pfizer Inc's highly effective COVID-19 oral antiviral Paxlovid to supply the treatment in 95 poorer countries, the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool said on Thursday.
Pfizer struck a deal last year with the group to allow generic drugmakers to make the pills for 95 low- and middle-income countries. They have been working since then to select the drugmakers they will license.
Pfizer and Merck both struck deals with MPP to allow generic versions of their new drugs in some parts of the world, a rarity for pharmaceutical companies that usually fiercely protect their treatments over the life of their patents.Paxlovid is expected to be an important tool in the fight against COVID-19 after it reduced hospitalizations in high-risk patients by around 90 percent in a clinical trial. The results were significantly better than those for Merck & Co's rival antiviral pill molnupiravir in its clinical trial.
Merck, on its own and through the MPP license, has deals with dozens of drugmakers to make its pill and generic versions are already available in some countries.
But Pfizer and MPP do not expect any of generic drugmakers to be able to manufacture significant supplies of Paxlovid before the end of the year.
The 35 companies that will produce versions of Paxlovid or its active ingredient are based in 12 different countries, the MPP said. They include some of the world's largest generic manufacturers like Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, India-based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, and US-based Viatris Inc.
Six of the companies will make the main ingredient for the drug, nine plan to turn that into a finished product and the remaining companies will do both.
Paxlovid is a two-drug treatment that pairs a new compound, nirmatrelvir, with the older antiviral ritonavir, which is already available as a generic.
Pfizer will not receive royalties from the sale of the generic versions of its drug while COVID-19 remains classified as a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern" by the World Health Organization.
Following the pandemic period, sales to low-income countries will remain royalty free, lower-middle-income countries and upper-middle-income countries will be subject to a 5 percent royalty for sales to the public sector and a 10 percent royalty for sales to the private sector, MPP said.
Pfizer has said it plans to produce at least 120 million treatment courses of the treatment this year, well short of its estimate of the 2022 market for antiviral pills of 250 million people globally.
The company is also expected to provide around 10 million courses Paxlovid it produces to low- and middle-income countries this year, according to an official with the Global Fund, a healthcare NGO working to buy the pills from the drugmaker.
US
US President Joe Biden on Thursday named public health expert Dr Ashish Jha to replace White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients, who will leave his post next month, as the administration prepares for new COVID-19 variants and infection surges that could hit the country.
Jha, a highly respected internist who leads the Brown University School of Public Health, takes on the role as the United States shifts to a new phase of the pandemic two years after the coronavirus upended the nation, the White House said.
"Americans are safely moving back to more normal routines, using the effective new tools we have to enable us to reduce severe COVID cases and make workplaces and schools safer," Biden said in a statement. "But our work in combating COVID is far from done."
Biden called Jha the "perfect person" to fight COVID "as we enter a new moment in the pandemic."
